Tuesday, September 2, 2014

September 2014

September 30th 1740 GMT

I was not really quite sure whether the Sun had set or not
but it was below the houses on the horizon.

I read something on Twitter than suggested that the Moon was
8 days past full but it appeared to be nearer five. The southern craters looked
rather interesting, along with the usual attractions of the thick crescent
phase.

I took 65 full disc lunar frames and stacked 63 of them.

September 30th 1615 GMT

I checked the Sun with the PST. I could see a small
prominence and a few filaments but it was generally rather quiet.

September 30th 1200 GMT

The morning started misty but cleared around lunchtime to reveal that the sunspot group that had been dominating the sunscape for the last few days was about to rotate off but new activity was visible. The Sun continued to be a rather interesting place.

September 28th 0830 GMT

After a cloudy start, it cleared to somewhat hazy
conditions. A solar bin scan showed that the sunspots had rotated yet again.

September 27th 1140 GMT

It was a bit clearer than the day before but there was still
a lot of thin cloud around. A solar bin scan showed that the sunspots had
rotated and the pattern changed yet again.

September 26th 1300 GMT

I tried a full disc solar shot with our other Lumix camera
but it clouded over before I could take any more. I saw some small prominences
and filaments.

September 26th 0820 GMT

Conditions were somewhat between bad and appalling but I
still managed to see 3 decent sized sunspots, one having grown quite a lot in
one day. It is almost certain that some smaller, fainter sunspots were present
but simply not visible through the cloud.

September 25th 0850 GMT

I bin scanned the Sun under hazy conditions and saw that a new sunspot had formed and the others had rotated.

September 24th 1510 GMT

It cleared for a bit longer, so I checked the Sun with the
PST. There were some plages surrounding the sunspots and some nice filaments. I
did not see any prominences. I took some full disc shots and close-ups but the full disc shots did not properly catch the whole solar disc in one shot but I used the attempts to show some features.

September 24th 1100 GMT

I caught a clear patch of sky for about 2 minutes through moving cloud and noted that the sunspot pattern had changed again.

September 22nd Evening

I took many frames of the region surrounding the pole at 70mm and 8 seconds
exposure. Only 11 of 67 were in focus and not affected by condensation on the lens. I also took some dark frames and flat frames the following morning. I used Deep Sky Stacker and had my best results yet. I stored the stacked version for future stitching and processed a copy, which I adjusted using GIMP.

September 22nd 1255 GMT

I checked the Sun with my PST. I did not see any prominences
visually but saw lots of activity surrounding the sunspots. I took some full
disc shots and close-ups.

September 22nd 0520 GMT

I saw the thin crescent moon, so tried to snap it at 70mm
focal length with my DSLR. Unfortunately, all of the frames were out of focus.

September 22nd 0500 GMT

I had a quick look at the dawn sky. Many constellations were
visible and Jupiter was in Cancer. Experience told me that I might be able to
see the main cloud belts but nothing more. I tried to estimate the brightness
of Betelguese. It was noticeably brighter than Rigel, Aldebaran and Procyon but
noticeably fainter than Capella. This apparent anomaly I have experienced
several times. It is normally caused by extinction, even on a clear night but
this time it was also caused by the advancing dawn. I decided that it magnitude
must have been about 0.3.

September 21st 2015 GMT

I took a few frames of the region surrounding the pole at 70mm and 8 seconds
exposure, my previous attempts having failed. This attempt was not perfect, as it was still a bit out of focus but at least captured some stars. I stacked 24 of 25 images.

September 21st 0830 GMT

In hydrogen alpha light the Sun looked more
active with several prominences and filaments. I took some full disc and
close-ups shots.

September 21st 0810 GMT

After some very poor weather, I woke up to a clear morning and saw a single sunspot.

September 18th 1135 GMT

I checked the Sun with my binoculars when the conditions
were hazy, with some thin moving cloud. I did not see any sunspots.

September 17th 0940 GMT

A solar bin scan under fair conditions did not show any
sunspots.

September 16th 2137 GMT

I saw a bright fireball magnitude -6 flash near Cygnus while
outside talking on the ‘phone. It appeared to be travelling from east to west.

September 15th 2045 GMT

I did a few 30 second exposures using my DSLR at the zenith.
I saw a sporadic meteor near through Cygnus at about magnitude 1.5. The first shot shows part of the meteor trail and the second the overhead shot showing parts of Cygnus and the Milky Way. M29 and the North America Nebula are visible.

September 15th 1045 GMT

The morning conditions were slightly better than the day before but I persisted with trying to see through the gaps in the cloud and was rewarded with a single large sunspot about to rotate off.

September 15th 2340 GMT

There was a lot of thin cloud scattering moonlight making
few stars visible. I took a few full disc frames of the Moon instead. I stacked 23 of 25 frames to get this result.

September 15th 2045 GMT

I did a few 30 second exposures using my DSLR at the zenith.
I saw a sporadic meteor flash near Cygnus at about magnitude 1.5. I managed to catch part of the meteor trail on one of the frames. The other shot was composed of 7 frames combined using Deep Sky Stacker and finished in GIMP.

September 15th 1305 GMT

The sky finally cleared enough for me to attempt sunspot
viewing. The large sunspot I had seen the day before seemed reluctant to
disappear around the other side of the Sun.

September 13th 1325 GMT

I bin scanned the Sun through thin cloud but did not see any
sunspots. This was a surprise, as the sunspot from the day before seemed large
and dark enough to show.

September 12th 2115 GMT

I did some DSLR shots. One set was around the Pole Star at
70mm focal length with ISO 3200 and 4 seconds exposure. The other was Ursa
Minor with my normal constellation settings. Unfortunately, the Pole Star shots were our of focus and the Ursa Minor ones were not my best, despite getting 7 minutes' worth of exposure.

September 12th 1300 GMT

A solar binocular scan revealed that the sunspot pattern had
changed as well as rotated. It looked rather interesting.

September 11th 0550 GMT

The Moon was still quite high in the west, being 2 days past full. I stacked 40 of 42 frames to get this result.

September 10th 1545 GMT

A solar bin scan revealed that the sunspots had rotated and
changed shape again.

September 9th 2040 GMT

The Moon was just past full and dominating the sky. I stacked 80 of 120 frames to get this result.

September 9th 1210 GMT

Conditions were quite good when I checked the Sun the largest sunspot had apparently grown.

September 8th 2000 GMT

Conditions were quite poor for the perigee moon (wrongly
termed a “supermoon”) but I managed to get a few full disc frames. I stacked 42 of 43 frames to get the final result.

September 8th 1100 GMT

I did not spot any prominences but the solar
disc looked quite active and I took a few shots. AS usual the lens blemish ruined the photo but I captured some detail.

September 8th 0800 GMT

The skies were clear and a solar bin scan showed that one of
the sunspots had grown and a smaller one had joined it. It seemed like a large
group was being formed.

September 7th 2010 GMT

Some stars were out but the Moon was near full, so any
thought of deep sky or constellation photography was out. I took 31 full disc
frames of the Moon instead. With no planets visible, there was nothing else to
do, not that I mind the full moon! It is an excellent subject for photography.

September 7th 0835 GMT

Conditions were less than perfect but I saw that another
large sunspot had rotated onto the solar disc.

September 6th 2000 GMT

Conditions were still quite poor but I took 125 lunar frames. They were about 3/4 of the disc and overlapping. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to examine all of them, so I stacked the lot! The detail was good but the blemish on the camera lens was visible.

September 6th 1340 GMT

Conditions were quite poor and the sunspots from the day before appeared to have rotated off but a single large one had rotated on.

September 5th 1300 GMT

It finally cleared enough to bin scan the Sun and I saw two
sunspots about to rotate off.

September 3rd 1355 GMT

A solar bin scan showed what appeared to be 2 elongated
sunspots.

September 2nd 1140 GMT

I checked the Sun with the PST. It seemed rather quiet, with
most of the activity in the upper left quadrant. The blemish on the camera lens caused some problems with the full disc shot and I needed to consider some work-rounds.

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